The sad story of Paul Christoforo

They say when you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Well, as a corollary, I say: If you mess with the Internet, you get Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho. And you don’t want that, as Paul Christoforo will tell you.

Many of you out on the internetz will already know the story, but to recap:

Gamer pre-orders the Avenger controller from N-Control

Gamer finds a suspiciously long time passes without receiving the controller

Gamer contacts Ocean Distribution, N-Control’s PR firm, to ask for some answers about when he can expect it

Ocean Distribution’s Paul Christoforo engages a back and forth email conversation with Gamer, getting surlier and ruder with every reply, eventually saying “no one cares what you think,” “we just have to put you in the corner with your im stupid hat on,” and “You just got told bitch.” Side note: Grammar, spelling and general English use is cringe-inducingly bad.

Gamer sends the email exchange to Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik. Mike’s response is: “Holy shit this is unbelievable. Dave, if this guy has a booth at Pax east we will cancel it.”

Paul goes all in and replies to Mike with this…

[quote]OK Mike whatever you say lol , are you sure hour not in Boston I spoke to the person who ran the show in Boston last year. If you let some little kid influence you over a pre order then we don’t want to be a your show ,Ill be on the floor anyway so come find me , I’m born and raised in Boston I know the people who run the city inside and out watch the way you talk to people you never know who they know it’s a small industry and everyone knows everyone. Your acting like a douchbag not that it matters pax east pax west , e3 , CES , Gamer Con , SSXW ,Comic Con, Germany I’m all over the place. If we want to be there we will be there with industry badges or with a booth you think I can’t team up with turtle beach , Callibur or Koy Christmas , I can’t get Kevin Kelly to pull some strings or G4 , Paul Eibler Ex CEO of take 2 , Rich Larocco Konami , Cliff Blizinski Epic who were working with on a gears version , Activision who were working with on a MW3 and Spider man Bundle , The Convention Center Owners themselves , Mayor of Boston come on Bud you run a show that’s all you do and lease a center in Cities you have no pull in its all about who you know not what you do. I’ll see space where ever I want , with who I want when I want and where I want so many ways around you and so many connections in this industry its silly. Anyway , I have no issue with you Sean Buckley Engadget, Scott Lowe IGN and the list goes on and on. Little kids unhappy with a PRE ORDER starting trouble and you email that to us , he’s a customer unless you’re his boyfriend then you should side with the company not the customer. Be Careful[/quote]

The internet gets their pitchforks and torches and tears Paul’s career apart. This includes stories about his behavior published at Kotaku. Paul emails Mike and says, “You have the power Mike. Please make it stop.”

Paul goes on to beg for mercy and apologizes without actually apologizing or accepting full blame for what he says, citing “a bad day” as the get-out-of-jail-free card.

N-Control has predictably ended their professional relationship with Ocean Marketing (also called Ocean Strategy or, if you are a fan of their Twitter feed, Ocean Stratagy). Paul’s life has sort of been leaking crap from every hole lately, with people also trying to harass his wife and make inappropriate comments/threats towards his kid. And yeah, that’s not right and it’s way over the line. On the other hand, it’s hard to say ,”Leave me alone” the way Paul has when you’ve come at someone in a condescending and unkind manner and never really owned up to your own responsibility in the matter. The Internetz is known for disproportionate response, and while I’m no fan of anyone attacking/threatening/harassing his family, it does drive home an important point: Live by the sword, die by the sword. Except, in this case, it’s more like: Be an ass, expect others to be an ass to you.

And now you know the sad story of Paul Christoforo, which, I feel, is most likely at an end. I hope it is, at least for Paul’s sake.

Corey has been been a tech journalist with a focus on Apple since 1998 and has written for The Loop, MacHome magazine, and as games contributor for The Mac Bible, and co-hosts the iGame Radio Podcast. He works as a corporate consultant and professional musician in Ottawa, Ontario.